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LeRae Haynes releases her first CD

Haynes brought many local musicians and singers of all ages into the studio to record with her
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Popular local musician LeRae Haynes has released her first CD. Jesse Madden photo

A popular Williams Lake singer songwriter has released her first CD which features the talents of many additional local singers and musicians of all ages.

LeRae Haynes said going into the recording studio was quite the process.

“Especially when you are LeRae and you really don’t like to sing by yourself so you involve many people to come in with you on the projects to make you sound as good as possible.”

Five of the 13 songs on The Road Going Home were already recorded so once she made the decision to record the CD in the spring, she brought some musical friends into Randy Pokeda’s recording studio, Harmony Productions, in Commodore Heights.

The title track, The Road Going Home, is a song about going home to the ocean.

The CD cover depicts a photograph of Haynes standing beneath the Sheep Creek Bridge above the Fraser River.

“It’s very historical to me,” she explained. “I used to stop there with my kids every once in awhile and throw rocks off the bridge. That was their big highlight when they were young.”

Trial by Fire is a song Haynes wrote about the 2017 wildfire season.

“We’ve played it a few times,” she said. “We played it for the Wildfire Expo in May held at the Cariboo Memorial Complex.”

Read more: Wildfire expo aims to destress by helping citizens prepare

For recording Trial by Fire she had about 10 backup singers — men, women and children.

“It was just awesome,” she recalled.

When it was the children’s turn to sing their parts for Trial by Fire, four of the children came into the studio at a time.

“One was so tiny, she had to stand on a chair,” Haynes said. “The children wound up in front of this big honkin’ microphone. They were so excited to be part of it. The little glass booth where Randy was with all his computer screens, was packed with parents and grandparents watching.”

Haynes wasn’t singing at that point, but listened as the children sang the chorus:

When fear fades to memory and bridges go across and we realize what it was that we lost.

We lost the feeling that we are truly and utterly alone and together we found our way home.

“At one point I looked behind me toward the Plexiglass booth and every parent and grandparent had their cell phone recording with tears in their eyes, every single one. It was so emotional.”

One of the “coolest” things about making the CD, she added, was the variety of musicians who came into the studio with her.

There were several musicians who contributed to various songs who only read music, and have a classical background, whereas Haynes said she is “illiterate” and does not read music at all.

“The fun challenge was trying to come up with a way for us to speak each other’s language enough for them to play their part in a song in the studio without sheet music. I would say to the cellist, for example, ‘if you can go C, D, D, D, G, A, G, G,’ and they’d scribble something down.”

There were three musicians that worked that way with Haynes and managed to pull it off.

“A couple of them entered something into their computer and it spit out some sheet music which they then had to tweak. It turned out so fine and was really fun.”

The experience reiterated her philosophy that if people want to make music together badly enough they are going to figure out a way.

Another popular song on the CD, which she has taught to many children in the Cariboo, is Amadeus the Goat about a local farmer and her goat.

“I had a bunch of Girl Guides singing for that one. Their little faces were all around the microphone and their arms were around each other so they could lean in. They were so exuberant.”

At one point Pokeda told Haynes the kids were “one-take” wonders because they nailed it the first try.

Haynes said Pokeda helped out as well, adding music where needed.

“If I needed a bass line, or a lead guitar, or a steel guitar or a banjo, he would just throw them in. He can do three-part harmony in his sleep. He sang and played on quite a few of the songs.”

Two of the songs were poems Haynes put to music.

They were written by Ken Garland, an architecture professor in England who is also a published poet.

His cousin, Brian Garland of Williams Lake was taking piano lessons from Haynes for a couple of years, and talked her into trying to put music to some of the poems.

“One of them was an environmental protest poem Ken wrote in the 60s and the other one is called You Spoke of Connemara, which is a beautiful place on the Irish coast.”

Haynes said Ken heard the songs during a recent family reunion.

“His granddaughter designed the cover and he was over the moon.”

The CDs are for sale in Williams Lake at BFF Fashions, The Guitar Seller, Red Door Spa and Station House Gallery.

In 2017, Haynes won the Hugo Stahl Memorial Award sponsored by the City of Williams Lake for her endless contributions toward the city during the Williams Lake and District Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards.

Read more: Margetts Meat Market named business of the year



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Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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